you write that as if the one who wrote it thought it was supposed to be literal...it was a vision and a picture says a thoausnd words.
Friend you write as if you know for a fact that the writer did not mean for it to be taken literally. Just because you may not be able to see that happing, does not mean it did not happen. Though I do believe a close study of the Hebrew word for "serpent" needs to be studied, I do not just take things as figurative unless the context demands it. Nothing in Genesis demands a figurative interpretation.
Also, Evolution is far fetched no matter how you cut it. When has life ever came from non living matter (dead mater)? When has chemicals and acids and rocks ever came together and formed life? When has God ever used this method? He does not say so in the Bible, so therefore who am I to believe that's what he did, when he tells us exactly what he did? Instead, we take what "science" forces down the worlds throat in hope to lead people away from belief in god, and many believers want to reconcile the bible with the world, as to not be at odds with the world. Yet Christians are not of this world - Jn 17, 18:24. We are not to love the world - I Jn 2:15-17. If we are worldly, then we are not a christian, their is no such thing as a worldly christian, even if one is a bleiver in God- Jn 17.
I am not saying that's what you believe, I am just saying. I don't understand why people reject things like Genesis as being literal, and at the same time believe one literally rose from the dead, to me that is more amazing than the serpent, 6 day creation, turning water to blood etc.